---
title: "Plotting Performance Graph of a GNU/Linux Box"
description: "Easy and fun Things needed : dstat GNUPlot This post, is not elaborating on dstat or GNUplot but rather focusing directly."
url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/plotting-performance-graph-gnulinux-box/"
canonical_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/plotting-performance-graph-gnulinux-box/"
markdown_url: "https://h3manth.com/scribe/blog/plotting-performance-graph-gnulinux-box.md"
publishDate: "2009-12-11T00:00:00.000Z"
author: "Hemanth HM"
category: "linux"
tags: ["bash","web","linux"]
word_count: 503
reading_time_minutes: 3
x_markdown_tokens: 1046
content_signal: "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes"
---

# Plotting Performance Graph of a GNU/Linux Box

> Easy and fun Things needed : dstat GNUPlot This post, is not elaborating on dstat or GNUplot but rather focusing directly.

**Easy and fun** _Things needed :_ **[dstat](http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/dstat/)** **[GNUPlot](http://www.gnuplot.info/)** This post, is not elaborating on dstat or GNUplot but rather focusing directly on how to plotting performance graph of a GNU/Linux box.

I have written a small script to plot the performance of the machine considering CPU,Memory and Network into picture.
    
    
    #!/bin/bash
    #Author : Hemanth H.M
    #Licence : GNU GPLv3
    
    # Usage
    show_help(){
    echo "Usage is $0 a|m|n|c|h"
    echo "-a or --all to plot cpu(c),mem(m) and net(n)"
    }
    
    # Make directory to store the results
    setdir(){
    mkdir -p Stats
    cd Stats
    }
    
    # Use dstat to get the data set
    gendata(){
    echo "Collecting stats for 60sec with an interval of 10sec"
    dstat -tmnc 10 > dstat.dat&
    [ "$?" -ne 0 ] && echo "Please check if you have installed dstat" && exit 1
    sleep 60s
    exec 2>/dev/null
    kill $! >/dev/null 2>&1
    #Remove the headers
    sed '1,2d' dstat.dat > stat.dat
    }
    #############################################
    MAIN BLOCK
    #############################################
    # Use GNU plot to plot the graph
    graph (){
    gnuplot << EOF
    set terminal $fileType
    set output $output
    set title $title
    set xlabel $xlabel
    set xdata time
    set ylabel $ylabel
    set timefmt "%d-%m %H:%M:%S"
    set format x "%H:%M"
    plot ${plot[*]}
    EOF
    }
    
    # Plot CPU usage
    plotcpu(){
    fileType="png"
    output='"cpu.png"'
    title='"cpu-usage"'
    xlabel='"time"'
    ylabel='"percent"'
    
    # Using an arry presrving the '"quotes"' is very much nessary
    plot=( '"stat.dat"' using 1:3 title '"system"' with lines,'"stat.dat"' using 1:2 title '"user"' with lines,'"stat.dat"' using 1:4 title '"idle"' with lines )
    
    graph
    
    }
    
    # Plot memory usage
    plotmem(){
    fileType="png"
    output='"memory.png"'
    title='"memory-usage"'
    xlabel='"time"'
    ylabel='"size(Mb)"'
    
    plot=( '"stat.dat"' using 1:8 title '"used"' with lines,'"stat.dat"' using 1:9 title '"buff"' with lines, '"stat.dat"' using 1:10 title '"cach"' with lines,'"stat.dat"' using 1:11 title '"free"' with lines )
    
    graph "png" '"memo.png"' '"cpu-usage"' '"time"' '"percent"' $plot
    }
    
    # Plot network usage
    plotnet(){
    fileType="png"
    output='"network.png"'
    title='"network-usage"'
    xlabel='"time"'
    ylabel='"size(k)"'
    
    plot=( '"stat.dat"' using 1:11 title '"sent"' with lines,'"stat.dat"' using 1:12 title '"recvd"' with lines )
    
    graph
    
    }
    
    # Clean up all the collected stats
    clean(){
    echo "Cleaning"
    cd Stats
    rm -r *.dat
    echo "Done!"
    }
    
    #Check for the first input if it's zero show help
    [ -z $1 ] && show_help && exit 1;
    
    # Set dir and gen data
    setdir
    gendata
    #wait
    #clean
    # Loop for different options
    while [[ $1 == -* ]]; do
    case "$1" in
    -h|--help|-\?) show_help; exit 0;;
    -a|--all) plotcpu ; plotmem ; plotnet ; exit 0;;
    -m|--mem) plotmem ; exit 0 ;;
    -n|--net) plotnet ; exit 0 ;;
    -c|--cpu) plotcpu ; exit 0 ;;
    --) shift; break;;
    -*) echo "invalid option: $1"; show_help; exit 1;;
    esac
    done
    

The above is attached as a file with this post, the inputs to this script can be a,m,n,c. That is all,memory,network and CPU respectively.

The script is pretty much self explanatory, the time and interval for stat collection can be changed in the script as per the user requirement, after running this script you will have a folder by name "Stats" which will have *.png images which would be the graphs of the system usage in the past sixty seconds.

_Script inspiration :[UK LinuxUsers](http://www.linuxuser.co.uk)_